Marathon == constant sunlight?? I know the constant sunlight period has implications for ISS temperature and for STS scheduling. But for an observer, the marathon is when the largest number of consecutive passes are sunlit above horizon (and visible at night). IE the fraction of the orbit that can be above horizon for him is sunlit. Not quite, since at 349 km (and 6370 earth radius) we can "see" ISS at 18.5 degrees "distance", ie 18.5 below our latitude. But that is only in the S - to see as many passes as possible in sequence you must have CULMINATION just above horizon. So the marathon start is when the apex is as far east of you as possible, with the track passing 18.5 deg away, the end after the westernmost corresponding apex. At 59.05 GEOCENTRIC latitude I can "see" 5 passes, if it is sunlit above 44N (and I can see it though the Sun may be above horizon) At 41.1N (or 41.1S) the number of passes has risen to 8. It must be sunlit above latitude 29. South of about 32.3N (north of 32.3S) a marathon is impossible, but you may need to be at 33.1 in case the apex of the middle pass falls close to the meridian. You can still see 8 passes if it is sunlit at latitude > 20.8 degrees If you wish to check my computation, or compute for a different latitude, I can send my .xls spreadsheet. (Assuming circular orbit and spherical Earth, free horizon) SkyMap shows only penumbra May 21 14:35 UTC Track16 has the shadow gone May 22, about 02:00 UT >> ----- Original Message ----- >> >> Between roughly 6 UTC ( May 21 ) to 15 UTC ( May 23 ) the >> ISS won't pass through the earth's umbra. >> So between those times, it will be in constant sunlight. >> >> So get ready for seeing the ISS pass by, a few times during the night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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